HRH Prince Charles Gaston Guillaume
HRH Prince Charles Gaston Guillaume (b. 2815 - d. 2900) was the youngest son of HRH Crown Prince Frédéric and a Communist politician, representing the 11th District of Silliers in the États-Généraux. In 2852, Charles became Finance Minister, the first Royal to be democratically-elected and serve in the Cabinet. In 2856, Charles became Chairman of the PRT, the first Royal to lead a political party, and in 2771 Charles became the first Royal to hold the position of Premier Ministre. Charles was known for nonconformist attitudes and his difficult relationship with his father. Early Life HRH Prince Charles Gaston Guillaume Vascoin de Villiers et Orléans-Vasser, was born in June 2815 at the famous Chateau de Fin du Nord like his brother and father. He was a sickly child and required a great deal attention from his mother, HRH Princess Consort Irène Brigitte Bastien-Provost. Unlike his brother, who was lavished with attention by his father, Charles, due to his ill health, was mostly ignored by his parents. He developed a close attachment to his nannies and servants, and hence felt isolated from a young age from the Royal Ceremony surrounding his elder brother. While his brother Prince Patric was raised to carry on the family's traditions, this was not expected of Charles, and he was left to his own devices. While Patric traveled extensively with his parents, Charles was sent to boarding school in Dundorf from the age of six. He subsequently felt little attachment to his parents, although always held a great warmth for his mother, who when he grew older became his close confidante and friend. Education From the age of six, Charles studied at an elite all-boys boarding school in the far north of Dundorf, at the Kaiserliche Akademie von Künsten und Drama. By all accounts, Charles's time at the Akademie was an unhappy one. Although popular with his peers, due to his sharp and sarcastic wit, and gifted at his artistic studies, Charles became the victim of bullying by some of the older students. The sensitive and artistic Française-Kanjorien was an easy target for the Nordic Dundorfians, due to his good looks and Southern complexion. Despite Charles's unhappiness in education, he graduated from the school at 16 with 12 Distinctions in his Allgemeiner Volksschulabschluss (AV) exams, including 100% in Drama, Française-Kanjorien and Economics. University Charles returned to Kanjor for university, where he studied Art History at the École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts. Unlike many of his family members, his dissertation did not focus on the impact the Monarchy had on his particularly vocation, despite the great contribution the Royals had made to the Arts. Instead Charles wrote his dissertation criticizing the legacy the Monarchy had left behind in stifling post-modern art, and promoting classicism in subordination of all other artistic styles. It was at university that Charles radically began to challenge the conservative political views of his father; influenced by the social liberalism of his mother, Charles became an active environmentalist and vegetarian, using his wealth to support animal rights causes. Career In 2843, Charles criticized his father's record on gay rights in the gay magazine Vandale, and subsequently endorsed the PRT-AD Alliance at the next election. Following the publication of the interview, Charles began talks with the Chairman of the PRT, Camille Daladier, which were rumoured to involve his standing as a Communist candidate. Although initially the PRT denied the rumours, Daladier eventually confirmed that the two had been in talks and that Charles had expressed an interest in standing as a candidate. In 2844, Charles officially joined the PRT, and placed his name of the ballot of the PRT's open primary in the 11th District of Silliers to become their candidate. Although his name of the ballot inspired raging controversy amongst the party's far left, the PRT members of the 11th District overwhelmingly chose the Prince as their candidate for the election. In the March 2845 General Election, Charles was elected as the representative for the 11th District to the États-Généraux for the Parti Révolutionnaire des Travailleurs. This was seen in the national media as a great coup for the Communists, and significantly attracted the support of liberal Monarchists. In 2846, Charles joined the party's Frontbench and became Shadow Finance Minister, pushing forward the party's support for banning animal testing. As an economist, Charles joined with fellow members of the Nouveau Garde in calling for greater liberalisation of the economy. In 2852, Charles was appointed Finance Minister, serving in a cabinet led by Premier Ministre Edouard Vaillant of the Action Kanjorienne. This made him the first Royal to be democratically-elected and serve in a Cabinet post. His term as Finance Minister showed a greater liberal strand within the PRT towards economics, and the Prince oversaw massive privatisation efforts. In 2856, due to the extreme unpopularity of Séverine Tourtelier, the Reformist and Nationalist wings of the PRT united to install the Prince as Party Chairman. He went on to serve as Chairman for 10 years, liberalising the party's attitudes towards social and economic issues. Despite endearing himself to a new affluent and youthful base, Charles alienated the traditional socially-conservative working-classes, and in 2866 rumours of a plot to remove him were rife. Rather than face the indignity of being removed, the Prince resigned as Party Chairman. Howver, the Prince made an unexpected return to the position of Chairman, ousting his rival Renard Ulliel and leading the party into an early election, where the Communists triumphed as the largest party. Charles subsequently was appointed Premier Ministre, the first Royal to hold the position. However, this blurring of the seperation of powers raised questions, and a Constitutional Crisis ensued. Despite his brother's attempts to remove him from his position, the intervention of Camille Daladier ensures Charles holds onto the position. His tenure as Premier Ministre was far from stable, and Charles fell victim to plotting within both his Cabinet and Party. He stepped down in 2776 as Premier Ministre and Party Chairman, and retired from politics. Later Life After leaving politics, Charles continued to campaign for the Communists, and was a staunch supporter of his successor as Chairman, Geneviève Guigou. Guigou acted as his Foreign Minister and was believed to have been the only person with the power to remove him as Premier Ministre; her loyalty to Charles and refusal to depose him meant, in his own words, "he was forever in her debt". Charles continued to advocate social reform, and campaigned actively for increased gay rights. He published a scientific journal on attitudes towards homosexuality which uncovered Kanjorien attitudes towards homosexuality had become increasingly more tolerant in the 2800s. Charles's friendship with Camille Daladier continued, and he became a trusted advisor of Daladier while he served as Lord Protector of Kanjor. Charles was believed to be responsible for Daladier's rejection of Patric Frédéric's return to the Throne. Charles provided the eulogy at Daladier's funeral in 2887, and contributed the introduction to the first edition of Daladier's memoirs. After several years out of the public eye, Charles's royal connections finally worked against him, and in January 2894 he was brought before the People's Commission. The Commission believed that although he had been a Communist politician, his Royal upbringing may have led him to subvert the Communist cause for his own ends. In June 2894, with intense lobby from a great variety of Communist politicians, the Commisson sentenced Charles to a public confession that his Royal upbringing may have hampered the progress of the Communist mission. He later retracted these comments after the dissestablishment of the Commission, explaining he had been threatened with execution if he did not sign a confessional. Death Charles died 24 June 2900, two years before his husband, and a year after he had been named the third greatest Kanjorien of the century. He was given a humanist burial, where his adopted son Claude gave the eulogy. Personal Life While at boarding school, Charles had no significant romantic relationships due to the all-boys nature of the school. It was not until university he briefly dated a classmate Victoria Angelle, before coming out as a homosexual. Charles has subsequently dated several high-profile people, including actor Claude Herbé, writer Michel-Gerard Fontaine, as well as briefly dating fashion designer Gottfram von Eberstein, 50 years his senior. From 2844, Charles was linked to Étienne-Henri Vascoin, the bisexual lead guitarist of rock band Assaut Tue la Course d'Assaut and son of former Président Pierre Vascoin. They met while Etienne was performing a concert in support of the PRT which Charles attended with Camille Daladier. The two were introduced and pursued a discrete but public relationship. The relationship was widely criticised by the conservative press, due to rumours of extreme substance abuse and partying. The gossip tabloids have regularly covered the rowdy behaviour of the pair, reportedly once spending KRP 700 ($8000) on champagne in one night. In 2852 Charles wed Étienne-Henri, and was re-styled HRH Prince Charles Gaston Guillaume Vascoin de Villiers et Orléans-Vasser of Kanjor, while Étienne-Henri took the styling of Prince Consort. The wedding was a low-key affair, but attended by many notable celebrities, as well as Charles's mother, Queen Irene. Notably the event was snubbed by Charles's father and brother. The union became the first gay Royal marriage in Kanjorien history. In 2853, the Court of Atyr granted Charles's application to adopt the twin sons of his husband, Claude and Michel, as his own. The two sixteen-year old boys had known Charles has their father's partner for nine years, and saw him as much a father-figure as their real father. Charles maintained good relations with the boys' mother, Marian Truffaut, and kept regular contact with her over their parenting. Charles made sure not put them through the same boarding school experience he had endured, and instead sent them to a highly-selective Arts School with an emphasis on developing individuality. As a result of his education, Charles can speak fluent Dundorfian, as well as Française-Kanjorien. He is an adept rider and is an art collector in his spare time. He is a patron of La ligue pour le Bien-être Animal and L'Alliance gaie pour la Justice. Sexuality Throughout school, Charles was the victim of bullying for his sensitive and artistic manner. However in an interview with gay magazine Vandale, Charles claims he did not realise he was gay until he was 18. Having been only around boys, he believed he would be attracted to girls as soon as he was around them more. Charles came out as gay at the age of 19, in 2834; while his mother offered her support, his father refused to condone his behaviour, and wrote a savage article in L'Heraut criticising homosexuality. The two have not spoken since. Charles maintains a cordial relationship with his older brother, although a certain distance must be maintained in order to ensure Patric is not construed as supporting his brother's sexuality. Due to Charles's sexuality, he will be ineligible to take the Throne due to his marriage to a man, which directly contradicts Theognosian Church teachings on homosexuality. Speculation Following the Prince's death, several women came forward claiming that they had participated in secret affairs with the Prince. The first claim was made by Margarite Bellois, Union Royale representative for the 29th District of Oléri-des-Grâces. In a tabloid confessional to Le Journal, Bellois claimed that in the summer of 2887, the 72-year old Prince had become increasingly curious about women, and they had an affair which lasted over four months. Other women claimed that up until the age of 80, the Prince actively sought out women for sex, even venturing to brothels. However, these claims have been fiercely denied by family members, friends and colleagues, who claim that the Prince was "strictly and entirely homosexual". His adopted son Michel, who is also gay, went so far as to say, "The idea of even looking at a woman naked repulsed Charlie". Political Views At university, Charles was outspoken in his views against animal cruelty and in favour of protecting the environment, but over time drifted further and further to the Left. Under the influence of the writer Michel-Gerard Fontaine, one of his lovers, Charles became acquainted with the works of Olivier Betrand and the idea of Betrandism. Charles subsequently began to think of himself as a Neo-Betrandist, promoting a socially liberal but far-left agenda. Since joining the PRT, Charles has been associated with the 'Nouveau Garde', a faction of young moderate thinkers on the centre-left of the party, including Bianca Costeau, Renard Ulliel and Séverine Tourtelier. Due to his homosexuality preventing him from ever ascending the Throne, Charles has been sharply critical of the Theognosian Church's role in public affairs, and is an avowed republican. Category:Kanjor